


'til the morning light

by Twig



Category: Professional Wrestling, Ring of Honor
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-12
Updated: 2013-04-12
Packaged: 2017-12-08 06:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/758176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twig/pseuds/Twig
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lacey won't be forgotten. (originally written and posted in 2008)</p>
            </blockquote>





	'til the morning light

**Author's Note:**

> Continuity: ROH, picks up after Supercard of Honor III (ROH in Orlando, March 2008) and then veers wildly from reality.  
> Context: Age of the Fall attempts to recruit Aries as he spirals on a losing streak. Tammy Sytch (Sunny) tries to tug Austin her way. Aries loses to champion Nigel McGuinness in a title match at Supercard of Honor III. Lacey is the one who ends up leading Austin away, to Jimmy Jacobs' dismay.  
> Note: I started this fic RIGHT after Supercard of Honor, but I didn't finish it before canon screwed me over. I was just going to leave it be, but I kinda like this fic a little too much to let it sit, so here it is, contradicted and all. Title from "Samson" by Regina Spektor.

_In this business, chicks sat quietly by their men. The only way they could change the subject was to change their man._  
\- Skip, by Opera

 

Women are destined to be forgotten. 

Never mind that she has more violence in her than the Briscoes, less mercy than the No Remorse Corp. There is greatness in her beyond the likes of Bryan Danielson or Nigel McGuinness. 

But she is a woman. She will never main-event a Ring of Honor show, never wear Ring of Honor gold. She is a sideshow, a freak, an aberration. Step right up and see those who dare to transgress the boundaries of their gender. 

She won't be pushed to the side anymore. 

Jimmy Jacobs is the first step. Age of the Fall is next. 

Austin Aries is but another rung in her ladder to climb. 

It isn't about power, nothing so mundane as that, not as a means unto itself. She knows better. Men covet prestige and wealth, the delirium of imagined control, the eager stroke of an immature ego. The Age of the Fall seeks to change the world, but men will always be men. Corruption is in their blood, in their flawed and stunted Y chromosome. She knows the day will come when Jimmy will fall, not the plunge of a knife into the heart of so-called civilization, the accomplishment of all their goals, but his own inevitable ruin. She has no intention of cushioning his fall. 

Austin, though. Well, she has no illusions about his shortcomings either, but he will do, for the time being. 

Aries. The Ram. Forceful and direct. But the man is anything but bold when she leads him away from the ring. Little more than a sheep, docile and waiting for slaughter. He has lost something, lost his way, and it's sad, really, when she considers it. She watches him as he drives them back to the Comfort Inn, and she doesn't even have to look him in the eye to know that he's missing a chunk of himself. 

It's been that way since he returned to ROH. 

She won't call him a sell-out, not like Jimmy does. Austin saw an opportunity and he took it. Isn't that the way they've all been indoctrinated? And he has seen now, for himself, the failure of following the script, but lacking a script, he now wanders without cause. There is nothing worse than a man without something to believe in. 

She will give him something to believe in. 

Austin is ready for it, too, by the way he holds her hand, even for the short distance from car to room. She knows what the others are already thinking. Jimmy thinks it, too, which is a disappointment, though not a surprising one. Her phone has been vibrating non-stop, like Austin's has been. Hers will have messages from Jimmy, doubting her course of action. His will have Tammy Sytch and an assortment of friends questioning his sanity. 

Don't walk away with that bitch. Don't sleep with that whore. Don't throw away your future by a woman's wiles. 

She has no intention of fucking Austin Aries. Not even when she pushes him to a seat on the double bed and straddles his lap, lays her hands on his shoulders and leans in close. His hands come upon her hips, and she presses her lips, firm, to his temple. Quietly, gently, she noses his hairline. 

Just as quietly, just as gently, he sighs. 

This is what women like Tammy Sytch will never understand, so blinded by sex and glittering lights that she doesn't know how to offer anything else. Promises mean nothing in this business, so founded by lies and deception. The road ahead is always paved with uncertainty. 

What _she_ offers is the here and now. The sweet succor of comfort. 

She can feel the flutter as Austin's eyes slip shut. Like vines crawling for a touch of the sun, he leans into her embrace, face buried in the curve of her neck. The only sound in the room is the dull rasp of her thumb stroking his stubbled cheek. Something clouds him, and it isn't the fog of a developing concussion. When she draws back and he lifts his head, she looks into his eyes, blues that seem dazed and lost. 

Where is the man who led his own revolution? Generation Next has come and gone, the bond that held its members in bitter shambles. Austin may never admit it, but she knows Strong's betrayal dealt him a harsh blow. His capacity for leadership is then called into question with the breakdown of the Resilience. Then, of course, there was TNA. 

Who she sees now is not the same man who had the audacity to step into the ring and declare himself the next era of Ring of Honor, who defied the odds and toppled the raging monster that was Samoa Joe, who defended his title as a fighting champion again and again. All she sees in his blue eyes now is sadness. 

Austin Aries may not be broken, but he needs a little mending. 

She guides him to bed, and he folds his arms around her. He is the bigger man, but she has the stronger heart, a woman's heart. 

They will say that she's bewitched him, beguiled him, dazzled him, but she knows the truth. They will lie here until the morning, and with the break of dawn, she will raze a path through Ring of Honor the likes of which they've never seen. 

Women are destined to be forgotten, but they won't forget her. No matter what.


End file.
